Trooper Piet Gutes
'Trooper Piet Gutes '''was a veteran Tanith, and mess tin compositor in Obel's 11th Platoon of the Tanith 1st. An older man in his fifties with drawn, haggard looks, Gutes was a popular man within the regiment (particularly close with Larkin, Melyr, Caill, and Bragg) and unswervingly loyal. Despite this, Gutes was also weary with Guard life and the endless grind of war, from Gutes' point of view, nothing mattered ‘if you were far enough away’, but Gutes, even amongst the Tanith found it hard to let go of the past. He spent much time mulling over the loss of his daughter, Finra, and grand-daughter, Foona, during the fall of Tanith, (Gutes's wife, unnamed, had died twelve years prior) and continued to dream of them almost every night, years after the loss of Tanith, greatly regretting the abscene of any photo-picts. Though Gutes grew increasingly tired of his life in the Guard, he proved a level headed, brave, soldier on several occasions. Gutes is first mentioned on Nacedon, where amongst others, he helped defend Dorden and a large group of wounded Volpone Bluebloods, holding out overnight against a fierce Chaos attack. (Ghostmaker, 1999) On Hagia Gutes was wounded twice, lightly in the thumb at the Doctrinopolis, and then more seriously at the Shrinehold after being shot in the leg during a battle with the Ershul. (Honour Guard, 2002) On Aexe Cardinale Gutes was part of Feygor’s Scout Team in the Montorq Forest, and along with a number of the team spent much of the time drinking heavily to forget his sorrows. The team spent most of the patrol residing in an apparently abandoned house, several days into the stay; Gutes (heavily drunk) was left distraught after finding a condolence letter sent by the Aexe Alliance General Staff Command almost 17 years before, to the mother of a missing soldier. ‘Dosen’t matter where you go, it (the war) always finds you’ he tells Rerval ‘I was faraway when Finra died, little Foona too’. This leads Rerval, a communications specialist, to reflect on the irony on having no idea what to say to Gutes. Mkvenner meanwhile, disgusted by Gutes and co’s drunken antics took Jajjo on a patrol that spotted many Blood Pact soldiers approaching the old house where the patrol had spent a few days residing. While Jajjo was carrying the message of this back to Colonel Corbec, the others made plans to fight on until reinforcements arrived. Gutes found himself alone in one of the downstairs rooms, he defended the room (soon set on fire) against the Blood Pact storming in, firing in his slow, methodical way until he ran out of ammunition for his lasgun, but then he made no attempt to draw his Straight Silver or pistol. Weary of his life, and the war, instead he sat down in an armchair and spent his last moments remembering his wife and daughter, allowing the Blood Pact (who seemed puzzled he put up no further resistance) to kill him where he sat. The Tanith reinforcements arrived soon afterwards and it was noted by Varl ‘he (Gutes) gave a good account of himself’. (Straight Silver, 2004) Gutes was later mentioned again in the ‘flashback’ novella ''‘Of Their Lives In The Ruins Of Their Cities’ (The Sabbat Worlds, 2010) when he takes part on a patrol on Voltemond. Piet Gutes remains one of the more ‘human’ of the characters to feature in the books and was missed by many of the Ghosts. Nothing is known of his early life, or occupation back on Tanith, but it is assumed he was a civilian, not a Militia member when he signed up for the guard.